Author of “The Help” accused of racism; sued
As we’ve all heard countless times, the opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings. This certainly applies to America’s latest soap opera, The Help, which is nothing more than a heaping helping of warmed-over Civil Rights Movement (CRM) leftovers served up by the the usual suspects in Hollywood.
In case you’ve been in a coma for the past several months, The Help (twice reviewed in TOO, here and, by yours truly, here) is a fictional, anti-White story about black maids in the South during the CRM, before the blessed triumph of liberalism when “the walls came a’tumblin down.”
The movie is based on a novel by the same name written by a White Jackson, Mississippi woman named Kathryn Stockett, who supposedly used her insider information to blow the lid off of the hidden record of atrocities visited upon the humble but lovable (but surprisingly spunky and resourceful) Black maids that once upon a time served as maids for haughty white socialites like herself and her family.
Kathryn portrays herself as the White heroine of the piece (no surprise there), Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a character with a dash of Gloria Steinem and Harriet Beecher Stowe thrown in for good measure. The principal Black heroine of the film/novel is Kathryn’s former family maid Ablene Cooper, portrayed as all things wise and wonderful, just like most Black people are in real life!
The film’s primary villains, of course, are Kathryn’s fellow Junior Leaguers with appropriately preppy names like “Hilly,” portrayed with a nuance and sensitivity that makes Cruella De Ville look like Mother Theresa. Read more